Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel on Sunday announced setting up a textiles university at the proposed smart city- DREAM City near Surat.
She was speaking at the foundation stone-laying ceremony of the 2,000-acres Diamond Research and Mercantile (DREAM) City here.
"For skill development in the textile industry, another important industry in Surat after diamonds, we are planning to set up a textile university in Surat," Patel said in her address.
Further, she asked textiles players to seek land in the proposed DREAM-city on the outskirts of the Surat city.
Surat is a hub for synthetic textiles especially sarees, dress materials and home textiles, which is supplied to the southern Indian markets besides exports.
Notably, last year in July, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced a mega textile cluster in Surat besides others in Bareily, Lucknow, Kutch, Bhagalpur, Mysore and one in Tamil Nadu with an budgetary allocation of Rs 200 crore.
Surat’s textile industry involves spinning, weaving, processing, garmenting and exports, thereby employing around 1.5 lakh people directly. Market estimates put the industry turnover at about Rs 50,000 crore annually.